Is it vintage or digital?

Let’s face it, we’re in the digital age – digital photography is the thing now, unlike the tedious glass plate photography or even film photography. So remember when I told you about how photographers would write on their photos “copyright”? Well as it turns out, there are hundreds who will put their digital tag on old photos (I’m one of those), but do they own them?

This photograph of a lovely young lady posing for a famous Paper Moon snapshot. Notice the tag on the bottom right hand corner? The time this photograph was taken (and it isn’t a reproduction), embossing was used for the 3D effect of images – on the cardboard backing of photographs. Meaning photographer initials were hand written on the photo if his business wasn’t embossed on the backing and the photo wasn’t placed in that cardboard frame.

Victorian/Edwardian era and the 1920s were all about flair and what caught the eye so color and embossing was used all over the place. A lot of postcards were accented with gold leaf or something for that sparkle. However, when it came to photographs like this, the photographer wouldn’t emboss the photo. That initial isn’t part of the original photograph.

So what does that all mean? Can it be removed? Here’s the thing, a lot of people like to say they have claim to rare photos so they slap their logo on it before showing it on their website (I found this one on Pinterest). Again, research helps in this case. Make sure the logo isn’t connected to a historical society, or even protected by some sort of History community. If it’s just someone gathering a bunch of photos and trying to say they have rare photos – yeah you can remove it.